End Of The Line For Jason Castro

There was no shocker tonight. “American Idol” voters did the right and honorable thing by dumping the Dreadlocked Wonder, Jason Castro.

Unfortunately, before getting to that bit of news, viewers had to sitt through a bloated hour padded with whimpy rock from Maroon 5, a forgettable performance by Bo Bice and a Ford commercial that had the “Idol” finalists looking utterly ridiculous in bull-fighter’s duds.

As members of our Judging Panel have pointed out, JasonÂ seemed to grow more and moreÂ clueless in recent weeks. On Tuesday, he stunk up the joint with a wince-inducing version of “I Shot the Sheriff” and then butchered some lyrics on “Mr. Tambourine Man.” His whole persona seemed to be captured during the Q&A portion of tonight’s show when he responsed to the query, “What’s the biggest thing you’ve had to overcome?” by saying: “The brainÂ being dead.”

So now we’re down to a final three of David Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado. The latterÂ will most likelyÂ need a spectacular performance next week to keep it from being an all-David finale.